Wärtsilä Engines for New Scottish RoPax Ferry

Wärtsilä to supply the main engines and auxiliary generating sets for a new Scottish-owned ferry.

The RoPax vessel, designed for transporting both wheeled cargo and passengers, was ordered by Lloyds Banking Group and leased by Caledonian Maritime Assets, Ltd (CMAL), and is being built at the Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft shipyard in Germany.

The shipyard requirements were that the engines must be commercially competitive, compact and light in weight. Wärtsilä will deliver two 8-cylinder in line Wärtsilä 32 main engines and three 8-cylinder in line Wärtsilä 20 gensets whose total weight will be only 151,4 tons which is the lowest in their class. The low engine weight contributes to the low overall weight of the vessel itself, which will result in a relatively high vessel payload.

Good fuel efficiency and low levels of emissions were also important considerations in the selection process. The new ferry must also be capable of round-the-clock operation since it will replace two existing ferries on the route connecting the mainland of northwest Scotland with the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides.

Andrew Duncan, Director of Vessels at Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited, commented: "We are pleased to announce that Wärtsilä main and auxiliary engines are to be installed on the new build ferry currently being designed at Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft. The engines were selected as the most suitable for the project due to their overall performance in terms of fuel consumption, emissions, weight and size."
 
The new vessel is designed to carry 700 passengers and 143 cars or 26 trucks. It is scheduled to go into service in 2014.